Well. That was the best sleep I've had in absolute years. The sky has shifted hues to a deep purple, evoking twilight in a fairy princess kind of way. The trees are still and empty near the glade, though the distant sound of strange animal calls drifts on the air. It is pleasant and magical, like a dream of ancient spring made real. If it weren’t for the tiny number blinking 121/121 in the corner of my vision, I’d think I was still asleep.

  Kora stayed silent, so it must have been safe. I'm sure there are a million things waiting to kill me, but at least they're waiting. My soul energy is back to full, which begs a question. Kora, can you see my little number?

  “Yes. It took a little over an hour before your soul energy recovered on its own. I had nothing better to do than watch it tick up to pass the time. Time and sleep aren't the typical method of regeneration, though.”

  What is it normally?

  “Killing biotics and consuming their souls.”

  That sentence was a punch in the face. Thanks, Kora.

  “I don't think you mean it when you thank me.”

  Alright, so… I get we need to be setting off into the dangerous blue yonder, seeking death and all that, but one more question. Why am I not hungry?

  “Your traditional bodily functions are taken care of by the Tournament during this stage.”

  I don't have to eat or drink?

  “Only if you find some benefit in doing so.”

  But… why? Wait, let me guess. This is entertainment, right? The gods want to watch us fight. I'd guess someone starving on a mountainside is a pretty boring thing to watch. I saw a nature documentary once, and boy oh boy, is starvation horrible, depressing, and sad. Pretty compelling, though.

  “There may come a time when the Twelve wish to test their species’ evolutionary endurance and fortitude in such a manner. Pray it is after you've managed to transcend the need for such mundane things as food.”

  Setting aside the metawhatever implications of what you just said, why should I be praying?

  “Humans never, never thrive in those environments. The other gods make their sentients much more hardy and resilient than the Last.”

  Human god is the Last? Like, number twelve? Wait, what do you mean never? Don’t the gods make new species each time?

  “Most of them do.” She hesitates, and I can feel her wondering whether or not to continue. “Let’s save philosophical questions for periods of rest, Competitor. Right now, you need to walk that path and find us a Challenge to complete.”

  Sure. Seems reasonable to focus on not dying.

  Alright, Sam. Don’t forget your magical juju. You’re still weak as a newborn kitten compared to average people, and they’re probably faster, too. So it’s all going to hinge on your ability not to lose your shit. Focus. Put on the mask. The ‘I’m a badass magician who can break the laws of physics’ mask. No, that name is pretty long and awful.

  “Competitor…”

  What?

  “You have to actually move your feet.”

  I’m trying. Hush. I have to get myself in the right headspace.

  So what mask do we want to wear? Obviously not Samantha Foreman, College Graduate, nor Sam Foreman, Tragically Depressed. I need confidence and certainty. I can’t hesitate or balk if—when—some crazy shit starts happening.

  But you aren’t a badass wizard.

  Whoa, intrusive thought, let’s push that away if we want to survive.

  No, I’m not just a badass wizard. I’m a unique badass wizard. I have powers no one has ever seen. I don’t have to fear them, they should fear me.

  There it is. The mask I need to wear. I am not who I was, or am.

  I am Sam Foreman, Singularity, and woe be to the alien who fucks with me.

  The path beckons, so I walk.

  The forest feels very familiar and very not at the same time. The trees could feasibly be mistaken for Earth trees, though their leaves grow with sharp fractal edges you wouldn't find at home. Thick branches form an impenetrable arch over the path that completely obscures the sky. Before I even reach the bend, the purple light of evening has faded to a deep gloom more akin to midnight. Despite the darkness, the edges of the leaves remain distinct in my sight. Thanks, Dickhead, for the Legendary Perception.

  The path curves to the left. I approach the bend slowly and carefully. And, as it turns out, wisely. My enhanced hearing picks up the panting breathing of something just around the bend. A tiny voice in the back of my mind babbles in fear, both of dying and of killing. Luckily, that’s not who I am right now. Reviewing my limited options for combat, I press my back to a tree and lean around to get a look at… a dog. Though a dog that lives squarely in the uncanny valley.

  Identification: Feral Torgul

  Level: 5

  Strengths: Agility

  Weaknesses: Intelligence

  Torguls are the dingos of the Eighth, scavengers and hunters of opportunity. Watch out for your babies.

  A wolf with the musculature of a pit bull, the torgul's mouth yawns far too wide for nature, revealing serrated teeth like a shark. Its tongue lolls out of its mouth, panting. Wait, are those teeth on its… forked… tongue?

  Nope. Absolutely not. I do not approve of this thing existing.

  Alright. Time to test out an idea my experimentation gave me. I activate Gravity Shift directly under its feet. The creature barks as it falls up, though it sounds more like a late stage tuberculosis patient than any dog I've ever heard. It slaps into the branches arcing over the path before it can gain enough momentum to cause it any harm. It scrabbles at the branches, upside down from my perspective, eventually coming unsteadily to its feet. Before it can gain its bearings, I draw on Strengthen Gravity.

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  The only question is how much? Normal gravity didn't hurt it. Twice? Three times? How much soul energy is that even? The horrific dingo finally spots me and bares its teeth. And its tongue teeth. The growl that rips from its chest scratches at my soul. Upside down against the canopy, it tenses to spring. I throw soul energy into Strengthen even as I cancel Gravity Shift.

  I expect it to fall, maybe faster than normal, crunch on the ground, and then I might have to go find a rock or something to finish it off. One of those predictions turns out to be, uh, a little too accurate. The dingo blurs through the air and slams onto the path with the force of a bullet train. Sickly green blood and pieces of dog explode in all directions, knocking me on my ass. The blood sprays across my face and into my open mouth.

  My guts churn and bile floods my throat. Falling on the ground, my stomach heaves, again and again, but nothing comes up.

  Dissociation is not a good thing, Therapist Molly claimed, but I'm pretty glad that it feels like I'm not fully in my body right now. Let's me think about things. I'd imagine there's nothing in my stomach because of whatever magic shit is preventing me from needing to eat. It's been a day, probably, and I'm not hungry, so I guess Kora’s right about that whole thing.

  My soul energy reads 61/121, but even as I notice—and think about what a dumbass I am to spend half my soul to splatter a glorified scavenger—the number jumps back up over 80, finally landing on 87. And, to my I-guess-we'll-call-it delight, the maximum number ticks up to 124.

  Achievement! “Gormand!”

  You have consumed the flesh of an animal from a far off world! If you still needed to eat to sustain yourself, you'd be experiencing excruciating pain before eventually succumbing to a horrific blood poison caused by the incompatibility of your respective body chemistries!

  Reward: You're spared an agonizing death.

  Addendum! Unfortunately.

  Congratulations! You've absorbed soul energy! Spend it to evolve yourself!

  The blood tastes like battery acid mixed with engine oil. I have no idea what either of those taste like, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. In a brief flash of desperate insanity, I almost shove dirt into my mouth to taste anything else, but this earth probably isn't any more compatible with my chemistry than green dog blood. I'd probably just poison myself in the process.

  A growl reverberates through the air. Then another. I force myself to my feet, guts still heaving. Two more of the tongue tooth dingos advance on me from farther down the path, spreading to the edges of the forest in a kind of pincer movement. To the edge, but not into the forest. A detail I'll remember if I survive this. Identification notifications flick across my vision and disappear as quickly.

  The one on the left crouches to spring, and I react without thinking. Strengthen. The instant its paws leave the ground, crushing force slams it to the earth. Its legs snap with audible cracks. Before I can turn, the second darts forward, mouth open and lunging. It's too far away, there's no way its teeth…

  Its tongue flicks out like a whip and snaps around my leg. A halo of pain enwraps my calf. Its teeth dig into my skin. With a sharp tug, the dingo pulls my leg out from under me. My head slams into the ground. The dingo growls and yanks at my leg, flipping me face down on the path.My brain aches worse with every jostling movement.

  “If you don't do something, you'll lose that leg.”

  What can I do? I don't—fuck that hurts—I don't even want to know what will happen to me if I Gravity it now.

  “Your Skills affect more than just the living.”

  Okay, but—

  The dingo digs in. I'm dragged a foot along the path. My calf is a sun going nova. Can't think, can't focus. My fingers dig into the soil, but the beast is too strong. All I manage is to claw furrows into the dirt. And find something, something small and hard.

  Another yank. My hip catches on a root, and I spin onto my back again. It's all I can do just to hold onto the small rock. The tiny rock. It looks pitiful in my hand, especially with the roided up monster tearing its hind legs into the earth a few feet away. But I don't have time to look for better.

  Its teeth are inches from my foot, its tongue burrowed halfway to the bone in my calf. Before I can think, before I can doubt, I toss the rock over the creature and Strengthen Gravity. The dingo's powerful frame bows under the weight, but the rock snaps down. It glances off the creature's thick hide, tearing a gash in its side, but leaving it very much alive. The dingo flinches. I claw a desperate three inches before it yanks on my leg again. Sobbing, I try desperately to dig my hands into the earth, but it's just too strong. I can't fight it.

  Well. I'm not going out like this. Of all the ways I can imagine to die, one inch at a time into a monster dingo’s gullet is not high on the list.

  “Wait, Competitor—”

  Shifting the purple field of effect horizontal, I activate Gravity Shift and Strengthen Gravity both at once. My stomach lurches as gravity flips ninety degrees in an instant. The dingo coughs in surprise around its extended tongue.

  We fall. Fast. Its tongue is buried too far into my calf for it to pull away. Its helpless flailing sends spikes of agony through my leg. The trees rocket towards us, a mess of green and brown. In the split second before we hit, I shift my feet, planting one on the dingo’s snout, the other wedged under its jaw.

  The tree makes a sound like lightning. The dingo squishes and breaks beneath my feet. It isn't enough cushion. My good leg shatters. I pinwheel, the world a blur. I barely have the focus to cancel Strengthen Gravity. My shoulder breaks from a glancing blow. Falling, no idea which way is up. I need to cancel Gravity Shift before—

  Air explodes from my lungs.

  I hit something. Again. But, blessedly, I'm not falling anymore.

  I lift my head, blazing pain igniting with every shift of my weight. I’m wrapped around the trunk of a wide tree. The forest yawns open below me, thick trees like pipes of an endless subterranean cavern. Vertigo strikes. My vision swims. I want to scramble towards the center of the trunk, away from the fall stretching down into the distance. My only hope is the earthen wall to my right, nearly in reach, washed in hazy violet light.

  “Think, Competitor.”

  Think about what? I don’t want to fall…

  Oh. Fuck me. I… am probably concussed. With a thought, I cancel Gravity Shift, and slump down a few inches to rest on the soft earth.

  “I'd brace myself.”

  I barely have time to think before fire ignites in my legs and shoulder. Groaning, my fingers claw deeply into the loam again. Waves of pain, high enough to capsize in, wash over me. My femur snaps back into place with a deafening crack. The pain fades.

  Why? Why do I have to feel this shit? Probably something Dickhead did to the Boon to make me suffer. As my eyes focus, they're drawn to the number floating in the corner of my vision.

  87/128

  Whoa. I used a lot of Skills in a short amount of time, and I had to heal some pretty gnarly injuries in the bargain. Why is my soul energy still so high?

  Congratulations! You've absorbed soul energy! Spend it to evolve yourself!

  “You absorbed their souls, Competitor. The soul of even the basest life forms carry weight.”

  That’s… kind of disturbing. I mean, do I have a choice? It feels wrong to just… take their very souls.

  “To do otherwise would be wrong. Their essence lives on in you, where otherwise they would dissipate into the nothingness of extinction.” She pauses, then her voice softens. “It is best you grow used to the thought, Competitor. You very much do not have a choice outside of avoiding all combat or dying yourself. Both of which, I might add, are poor decisions if you wish your species to survive.”

  God, this is too heavy. Heaving a sigh, I force myself to my feet. The mess of the dog still decorates my lower body. I wince at the acrid stench. We tumbled a few steps into the forest under the field of Gravity Shift.

  And, now that I'm paying attention… something isn't right. The vibes are completely different. The sunlight still shines on the path, or whatever weird violet light passes for sunlight on this world, but even a few steps in, it feels closer to midnight. The serrated leaves are thick enough that they are more roof than canopy. The trees seem to grow even larger the farther you get from the path. Larger, and closer together.

  Beyond the dimness, though, there's something… else. A feeling almost at the base of my neck, like I should not be here, like there's something else out here with me, and whatever it is makes the demonic dingos look friendly. They did seem awfully interested in staying on the path themselves…

  Without hesitating any further, I dart back to the path. The seconds it takes until I return to the light feel like minutes. The uneasiness fades instantly, like I've just walked the streets after dark and finally made it home to close the door on the terrors of the night. I turn to look again at the quiet stillness of the forest. There’s no sign of anything or anyone, but I’m certain I wasn't imagining it.

  Note to self: stay on the path.

  “Probably wise.”

  Well. I shake away the feeling, quite literally, and turn back to the path leading deeper. Urgency, right? Gotta find a challenge or whatever? My soul energy has crept back over 90. It's not as high as I'd like, but here we are.